Chapter 78 You've Arrived
At 10:00 AM sharp, they boarded a medical plane bound for the Eye Center of Beijing Medical University.
The plane smoothly glided into the clouds, and through the window, golden sunlight slanted in and gently fell on the hospital bed.
His disheveled black hair, stained with mud and sand, obscured half of his sharp eyebrows. His dark lower eyelids resembled two bruises, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken. His face was pale, radiating a sickly, ashen aura. His jawline was so thin it was practically just skin and bones, covered in unkempt stubble… What had he endured in the past month?
Qin Qiao was already in tears. She held his muddy hands and gently wiped them with a damp cloth, wiping his right hand and then his left. Her voice was hoarse as she softly called his name.
His lips moved slightly as he responded to her in a hoarse voice.
Like a dream, or an obsession.
"Qiaoqiao... Qiaoqiao".
Chen Jiashu's systemic infection was extremely severe, and ordinary antibiotics could not suppress it. It could lead to sepsis at any time, endangering his life. The medical conditions in the small town were inadequate, and the doctors were helpless and suggested that they be transferred to the city.
Sun Gang pleaded with the doctors to stabilize the patient's condition as quickly as possible. At the same time, he urgently contacted friends in Beijing and a medical transport agency to arrange for a medical plane to be dispatched as quickly as possible.
An hour later, the plane landed on the top floor of the ophthalmology center. The medical staff who had been waiting quickly stepped forward, helped the person off the plane, and pushed the gurney straight to the operating room without stopping for a second.
The emergency room door closed, and all the strength in her body was instantly drained. Qin Qiao slid down to the ground against the wall.
Sun Gang placed his briefcase on the bench. Looking at the woman's pale face and trembling body, he didn't go over. He stood there quietly, his hand gripping his phone tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
"If we had arrived any later, we might have lost our lives." The doctor's tone was heavy, and he sighed as he felt the situation was dire.
A layer of fog seemed to rise in front of him, blurring the pale blue walls. Sun Gang lowered his head, blinked his dry eyes, and stared at his toes.
Shortly after, the operating room door slid open silently, and a young doctor emerged. He removed his mask and looked around: "Are Chen Jiashu's family members here?"
It wasn't the chief surgeon who performed the operation; he must have come out to explain the patient's condition.
"I'm here, doctor." Qin Qiao rushed forward. "I'm his wife."
“Okay, here’s the situation,” the doctor said quickly, “Mr. Chen has a severe infection in both eyes. We’ve done an intravitreal injection in his right eye and used a strong antibiotic, and the inflammation is showing initial signs of being controlled. But the situation in his left eye is very serious; it has developed into panophthalmitis, and the eye is full of purulent discharge, which is also the root cause of his high fever…”
She listened blankly until the doctor's next words exploded in her ears: "A decision must be made immediately. There are two options: Option one is enucleation, like a bad tooth, pulled out by the root to completely remove the lesion; Option two is evisceration, like an egg, where we remove the yolk and egg white, but keep the shell."
Sun Gang took over in a deep voice: "Option two, retain the 'eggshell'... You mean, although it can't be seen, the appearance remains basically unchanged, right?"
"Option 2 can indeed preserve the appearance to the greatest extent." The doctor patiently explained, "We will implant an eye implant at the same time to fill the space inside the eye, so it will not collapse completely like after removal surgery. But you must have reasonable expectations: it still cannot restore the fullness of a normal eyeball. After the inflammation completely subsides, a prosthetic eye can be custom-made in a week or two. Option 2 can ensure that the prosthetic eye will have better mobility in the future and look more realistic and more expressive."
What are terms like "eye socket," "artificial eye," "false eye," and "lifelike"?
For Qin Qiao, these words were nothing short of a thunderbolt.
A breath caught in her throat; like a dying fish thrown ashore, she opened her mouth but couldn't inhale a single breath. Tears welled up, as if every bone in her body had been cruelly pulled away, and her whole body slumped downwards. If Sun Gang hadn't been supporting her, she would have collapsed to the ground on the spot.
Sun Gang's arms trembled, each word like a knife, cruelly cutting into the hearts of the living. The person lying in the hospital bed knew nothing of this. The cruelest thing was to permanently remove a part of him from his own flesh and blood; this decision was left to the woman who loved him most.
It is said that lawyers are the most rational profession besides doctors. They spend their days with cold legal provisions and evidence, as if they have long since lost the joys and sorrows of ordinary people.
But the person lying inside was Chen Jiashu.
He was the one who pulled him out of the abyss of self-abandonment during the darkest moment of his life. He was also the young man who visited him three times, inviting him to fight alongside him with the utmost sincerity.
His usual rationality crumbled, and he squeezed out a harsh sentence from his tight throat:
"Doctor...is there really... no other way?"
After signing the document, Qin Qiao stood there for a long time, still looking as if her mind had been completely drained.
In a daze, she heard a woman's heart-wrenching cries coming from afar.
She turned her head blankly.
Outside the third operating room next to theirs, a woman knelt on the floor, her hands digging into the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. A stern-faced doctor stood silently before her, waiting. Two family members came forward to help her up, but she collapsed back to the ground.
*
The instruments beeped incessantly. The man on the bed had bandages wrapped around his eyes, and his face was almost transparent from blood loss. He seemed to be waking up, and his chapped lips trembled slightly from time to time, uttering a few indistinct syllables.
Qin Qiao stood in the corridor and answered Tian Jiayue's call.
She cut to the chase, saying they were currently at an ophthalmology center in Beijing. Upon hearing this, Tian Jiayue immediately said she would come to see Chen Jiashu right away.
Qin Qiao hummed in agreement. After Tian Jiayue hung up the phone, she slowly lowered her hand and leaned against the cold wall.
She didn't know how to tell Jia Shu what had happened now that he had woken up.
When the doctor came out of the surgery, he told her that Chen Jiashu's right eye vision had also been lost because the retinal detachment had been present for too long.
For the past month, she has been praying every day. At first, she prayed to God to bless him to return safely; later, she only prayed that he could come back.
As time went on, her fear grew stronger; it spread like wildfire, clinging to her every midnight dream. In her years working in international journalism, she had seen too much; kidnapping cases were always a matter of life and death.
But as soon as dawn broke, those bloody speculations, like a mimosa plant touched by sunlight, instinctively curled up and retreated to the deepest corner of her heart. She kept herself so busy that she couldn't turn around, as if as long as she didn't stop, the huge black hole in her heart would never catch up with her.
Jia Shu wouldn't blame her; she knew that all too well. He might even appear nonchalant, channeling all his energy into fighting against himself, quietly collapsing through self-punishment.
“Qiaoqiao…”
A faint murmur came from the inner room, as light as a leaf falling from a tree.
With a slight flick of his fingertips, Chen Jiashu grasped that tiny bit of fabric. He realized he was on a bed, and that soft thing must be the bed sheet.
Then, his restless hand was completely enveloped by something softer. A warm sensation seeped into his cold skin, bringing him a sense of peace.
He fell asleep again.
Sun Gang returned to the ward carrying newly purchased daily necessities and a packaged meal, and gently placed the items on the bedside table.
"Qin Qiao, you haven't eaten all day. Eat something; your health is very important." His gaze shifted from Qin Qiao's tear-streaked face to Chen Jiashu, who was sleeping soundly on the hospital bed. His complexion had improved a lot since he was able to get a good night's sleep. "Jiashu is back now. What you need most now is for you to take good care of yourself."
Qin Qiao smiled, tucked the large hand that she had warmed in her palm into the blanket, got up, picked up the bag, and went to the sofa to eat.
After the five bags of medicine were finished being infused, it was already eight o'clock in the evening. Qin Qiao brought out a basin of warm water from the bathroom. She placed the basin on the stool next to the bed, dipped her hand into the water, picked up a towel, wrung it out until it was half dry, and then bent down to carefully wipe the fine sweat from Chen Jiashu's forehead.
A warm towel swept across his forehead and cheeks, then carefully wiped his fingers. The water flowed gently, reflecting the white light from the overhead lamp.
"Xi Xi! Zhao Ye!"
Chen Jiashu suddenly shouted and sat up abruptly like a startled bird.
Sun Gang and Tian Jiayue had just arrived at the door when Qin Qiao, who had just come out of the bathroom, paused upon seeing them. The three of them rushed to the bedside almost simultaneously.
"elder brother!"
The longing she had felt for him over the past few days turned into a powerful shock when she saw him in person—so thin and haggard. Tian Jiayue raised her hands slightly, unsure of where to place them.
“Jiashu.” Sun Gang, standing behind Tian Jiayue, had tears welling up in his eyes.
Qin Qiao stood opposite them. She bent down, took Chen Jiashu's hand, and the man curled his fingers, slowly turned his head, and raised his chin to 'look' at her.
“Qiaoqiao.......”
A large tear rolled down from the corner of Qin Qiao's eye, slid down her cheek, and dripped onto the snow-white quilt cover, spreading into a dark gray wet stain.
"Jiashu, I'm here."
Soft and smooth fingertips, delicate and pointed, like slender bamboo shoots breaking through the soil after a spring rain. The lines on the palm are shallow, but the heart line is very clear.
The girl once showed him her palm with a happy, slightly boastful tone, saying, "They all say my love line is deep and long, a rare and auspicious palm reading. I'm sure I'll grow old with my sweetheart and live a loving life together."
Chen Jiashu's fingertips caressed her palm, sending a tingling, ticklish sensation through her. Qin Qiao gazed at him, seeing a slight upturn at the corners of his lips, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"You've arrived."
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Author's Note: I'm so afraid you'll call me heartless and cruel. I hesitated for a long time about whether to publish this chapter or revise it. Because I mentioned earlier that Jia Shu has glaucoma and hasn't been taking his medication for so long... and his living environment is very poor, so this could happen...
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